Monthly Archives: July 2005

I remember spending more than a few hours with Nintendo’s Mario, and his brother Luigi. Their 20th birthday is coming up, and Nintendo plans on celebrating- with a new product launch.

RUMOURS ARE running rife that Nintendo is to release their Game Boy Micro in Japan on the 20th birthday of their iconic poster boy Mario, September 13th. Nintendo has thus far denied all the rumours though we wouldn’t put it past them.

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I’m a Mac user. I’m a PC user. I’m not a Linux user, but I aspire to be so one day. Linux is an ‘open source’ software. This means that the public has access to the linux code, enabling those savvy enough to modify, add, or subtract to the operating system.

The term freeware comes in to play when talking about linux. Freeware is a term that contains two entities: free as in no monetary cost (usually described as ‘free as in free beer’) and free as in there are no restrictions for the software’s use.

Carlsberg beer, a Danish brewer, has decided to make its beer recipe ‘open source’. This means that they’ll just give away the recipe. People can make, modify, and resell the beer. As long as the original recipe is credited, then everything is all-to-the-good. More things should be open source, and that’s where the Technology University in Copenhagen and Carlsberg are trying to go with this joint beer venture. Something about software and alcohol get me excited that tomorrow is the weekend!

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I’m using a Nokia 3595 phone, with a very colorful fish theme case. But, before I got my hands on this $5.99 prize of technology, I had the T-Mobile Sidekick II. Email, instant messenging, games, web browsing, camera, you name it, and this phone had it. The Sidekick II isn’t even the most full featured phone either.

Phones are on the road to more and more features, and CamReader is ready to be a part of these new multi-purpose devices. CamReader is a technology that makes our sci-fi dreams become reality. Imagine scanning a document with your phone, or a barcode. Facial recognition would be great!

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When you’re at work, staring at an excel spreadsheet, you should be focused on work. But we know the truth. Your fingers are typing, the mouse is moving, and the excel spreadsheet that you’ve been staring at for the past week is growing slowly. In the back of your mind, you’re wondering if gizmodo has posted any new content. You’re hoping that the cute girl you went out with last week has updated her blog (yes cute girls have blogs!) and if she mentions you in it.

You’re not allowed to surf the net at work (too much), so checking your favorite gadget weblog each hour just isn’t acceptable in today’s cut throat, slave driving corporate world. There’s ways around this problem, and those ways begin with the letters RSS. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is the technology that we’ve all been waiting for. Imagine, everytime Rocketboom updates their vlog, you receive a notice –just as you would receive a notice when a new email arrives- and can view that new entry in your email client, or RSS reader.

I use Mozilla’s Thunderbird email client for my RSS reader. There are fancy readers, but I’m not a fancy guy. When surfing the web, and you see these () little buttons, this means the site is ready to be RSS’d by you. Some apps let you drag and drop, some require a copy paste, be either way it’s super duper easy to “subscribe” to your favorite blog, news site, podcast or, other online syndication.

So why is RSS so unpopular? 1% of the internet population uses RSS. The 12-21 male demographic is the leading RSS group at a whopping 5% of the polled use RSS. Is it because we like looking at every page in our bookmarks, each time we get a chance to hit the internet? Do people just not understand RSS? Is there a need for a LIVEdigitally how-to-RSS article in the near future? I’m baffled? I’ve been using RSS for some time, and tons of sites offer simple syndication, so what’s the hold up? Let’s get RSS off the bench and on the court!

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Microsoft is making waves with it’s new Vista operating system. The current Microsoft standard is Windows XP, but not so far on the horizon is XP’s replacement and people can’t stop buzzing about it. Vista will be even more secure than XP is now. I think that’s great, but it also means that less apps will be compatible with Vista, not sounding good for something that hasn’t even come out yet.

We’ll see what happens with Vista and XP, as of now I think I’ll stick to my Windows 95 computer, which I just upgraded from Windows 3.1.1

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I’ve never owned, or lived in a household where someone did own a big TV. A new TV for me is a hand-me-down for someone else. But now that TV’s are smaller, flatter, and bigger I may change that tune I was whistling before. But what do I choose? LCD or Plasma?

This article tells you what’s the good, bad, ugly, and important between the 4 digit priced TV’s.

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Most of us use a standard keyboard and mouse on our computer. Bill O’Brien has done an excellent job of cataloguing alternative input devices of many different varieties. If your wrist hurts, and you’ve got some bucks to spend, check it out.

Some input devices aren’t easily categorized — like the touch screen. IBM tried to introduce a touch-screen system about two decades ago. It was a clunky and unreliable. Sometimes you got what you touched, sometimes you didn’t, and sometimes you had to reboot the system. Hardly ready for prime time. Today they’re much more accurate and much better protected against moisture, dust, and the general grime and oil that collects on our fingertips.

Touch-screens also don’t need to be complete monitors. There are touch-screen overlays available for existing displays and notebooks. Of course, you’ll still need mouse-driven application software to interpret the screen touching. (In case you hadn’t noticed, your PDA uses a touch screen, as do many smart phones.)

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Geeks all have one universal problem. No, I’m not talking about Microsoft. Geeks never get chicks (and my mom says that when I stop calling them chicks that will change).

As I was saying, geeks around the world have one problem, getting chicks. We’re smart, innovative, and have somewhat of an imagination –why not just build a chick? Professor Hiroshi Ishiguru did just that (how could you doubt a guy with the word guru in his name?) Repilee Q1 is her name, and silicon skin is her game. Continue reading →

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iPod. That’s all anyone needs to say these days and the notion of downloading music, iTunes, a computer, and the actual iPod come to mind. Not RCA’s mind.

RCA has a bookshelf system that will now transfer CD’s directly to your mp3 player. “Three easy steps are all it takes to move your favorite music from CD to a portable digital music player…” claims RCA.

Reasons this idea is good: No need for a PC, no need to download songs, and it’s the first I’ve seen of this kind.

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Apple’s iPod Shuffle is heavily criticized for its lack of a screen. While gadget junkies did not fall in love with its very basic feature set, it did have sales for one simple reason- cost. In this era of ever faster product cycles, and the planned obsolescence of our disposable society, who can argue with a $100 player with half a gig of storage. After all, there are many folks out there with less than 100 MP3’s, and this capacity player will more than serve their needs.

Lexar has taken the old adage, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” to heart. They have built a very basic MP3 player, but at least it has a screen to display the name of the song playing unlike iPod’s Shuffle. Sure, some folks will want a more full featured player. And Lexar will be happy to sell them their more featured players including the LDP-400, LDP-600, or the upcoming LDP-800 player. For their LDP-200 player they cut the feature set to the bone, and left off the FM radio, and a microphone. There is no included software. The unit is powered by a standard AAA battery to save the cost of a rechargeable cell. You can even buy the unit with no memory card included. The LDP-200 stores it songs on an SD card. This is another example how SD cards are dominating in this market segment. The unit can be purchased with no card included, or with included card capacities of 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1 GB. If you already have SD cards in your collection, the no card version becomes an affordable alternative at $49!

Let’s take a look at the LDP-200 and decide if it’s “no frills” feature set gets the job done. I am curious to see if the device performs more on the side of frugal, or if it slips towards just plain cheap.

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Well, with our cars having more and more electronics, it’s just a matter of time that we need more storage space. Will AAA come and swap a hard drive for you in the not too distant future? Seagate is trying to meet the need.

The EE25 Series disc drive is Seagate’s first drive designed specifically to meet the needs of the global automotive industry and other “extreme environment” applications. EE25 Series is targeted at automobile OEMs and their system manufacturers as well as to ruggedized mobile computing and industrial PC applications. High capacity 20 and 40 GB capacity points will deliver massive storage for bringing DVD-free GPS and high-quality AV entertainment services to the car. Most importantly, the EE25 Series will provide the industry’s most extreme environmental robustness to enable the continued transformation of the car into an extension of the terabyte lifestyle.

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Nicholas Cage, Standley Goodspeed, in one of my favorite movies, The Rock said this when asked about VX poison gas:
It’s very, very horrible sir. It’s one of those things we wish we could disinvent. This isn’t a training exercise, is it?
This quote came to mind when I saw the Oakley/Motorola RAZRWIRE Bluetooth Eyeware. After puking in the back of my mouth a bit, I reassessed the situation and still had to put this product into our ‘That’s Janky’ category. Just imagine walking around outside, talking on your phone with that girl who you’ve had a crush on since 10th grade with your new RAZRWIRE glasses/headset. Once you pass thru the doors, you realize that the $300.00 sunglasses are too dark for you to see indoors. So take them off just to miss her say “I’ve always been in love with you, tell me you love me too!” So you’ve lost the love of your life, you look like an idiot in doing so with goofy glasses, and you’ve been chumped out of 300 bucks.

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About

Jeremy Toeman is VP Products for CNET. He has over 15 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include Viggle, Dijit Media, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents nothing but his personal opinion and outlook on things.